Australian prosecutors want tougher sentence for archbishop

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian prosecutors said on Thursday they will appeal for a tougher sentence for the most senior Roman Catholic cleric convicted of covering up child sex abuse.

A magistrate last month ordered former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson to be detained at his sister’s house in New South Wales state for at least six months of a one-year sentence before he is eligible for parole. The 67-year-old cleric was convicted in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s.

The Director of Public Prosecutions’ office said in a statement that prosecutors were appealing the “inadequacy” of the sentence in the New South Wales District Court. Wilson had faced a possible sentence of up to two years in prison.

Wilson will appeal his conviction in the District Court in a hearing in November, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.